


Conjuration Magic

by Scribbling_On_Napkins



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Gen, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 20:43:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12066648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribbling_On_Napkins/pseuds/Scribbling_On_Napkins
Summary: Merle didn’t think about it.Maybe that’s why it worked.





	Conjuration Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Technically, the "Enemies to Friends to Lovers" part already happened, but still.

Merle didn’t think about it.

Maybe that’s why it worked.

If he’d had time to think about it, he would have talked himself out of it, told himself it was a stupid idea, and moved on to trying to think of a real option. It would have been tossed aside, not without regret and bitterness, but he was very used to those feelings by now, even without the missing century’s worth of memories. His face would have twisted up into a bitter expression for just a moment as he looked at the broken and wrathful embodiment of the Hunger, and he would sigh, and he would turn his focus to something or someone else. Probably would have laughed, or said something he thought sounded clever.

So, it was a good thing he didn’t think about it.

He didn’t even say it out loud, which turned out to not matter. It would be something that made sense, later, when he had more than a few seconds to think. It wasn’t as if he knew anything about the engine’s design, even now – even before? – he couldn’t tell you much about how it functioned, it wasn’t his field. But he did know it was magic, and he knew about magic, or as much as the average person could know about magic. It didn’t always need words, it didn’t always need focus.

That was why, when the bond engine roared to life, Merle was surprised. It took until the figure was taking shape for him to understand, and the surprise turned to concern, to dread. What had he been thinking? Would they need to fight two enemies now? Would he just stand there and laugh at them? Would he say some philosophical crap about how they could never understand what the Hunger offered and stood for? Would he just walk away?

Merle knew that by now Taako and Magnus were looking at him. He didn’t look back, didn’t want to, and kept his eyes on the figure emerging from the engine. He knew they’d know who it was, even if they hadn’t seen the twisted, hollow version of him moments ago, the voidfish had put the knowledge in the minds of every being in this plane and beyond.

Not all the knowledge, thankfully. He hadn’t offered up every detail of his time during the parlays, so some hadn’t been in Lucretia’s books to be sung by the fish. And while he felt a strange sense of satisfaction from the memories that were his and his alone – whatever they might be, it wasn’t as if he could tell what exactly had and hadn’t been shared, especially now that he had all his memories back himself – these in particular were ones he wanted to keep to himself.

Those memories started to come up as John stepped away from the bond engine and looked around in curiosity. When his eyes settled on Merle, he smiled. He looked better, not just because he wasn’t being torn apart inside and out, but he seemed more relaxed, more open. As John walked towards him, Merle came to the realization that he hadn’t summoned John as emissary of the Hunger, or even John as he had been in their later visits when it had slowly shifted to being less about business and more about pleasure.

No, he knew, somehow, as John stopped in front of him with that warm smile, that this was John as he had been, before. Before all those years of dying, before John had seen infinity and come back broken, when he was a motivational speaker who only wanted to help.

He had summoned John.

And he had him.

John offered a nod, and though his fond expression didn’t change, his words brought Merle back to the present. “What do you need, Merle?”

Merle huffed out an awkward laugh, finally looking away. “Well, buddy,” he waved a hand at the scene in front of them. The Hunger growling with rage, the orbs hanging suspended in the air. “We’ve got, well, a little problem here, got anything for us that could help us?”

He looked at the Hunger and there was a look of sadness that crossed his face. No, not sadness, but it was gone before Merle could tell what it was. Guilt, maybe? Pity? Whatever it was, John gave another nod, and turned back to Merle with a determined look in his eye, and he put a hand on Merle’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. He smiled again, “I know just the thing.”

As John stepped away from him, Merle watched him, and continued to ignore Taako and Magnus watching them both in turn.

Instead he thought about that chess game, and the king. The pieces flying out after they’d been freed.

Could John be freed? Could he be put back, good as new?

Merle decided, then and there, that he was going to do whatever it took to find out.

**Author's Note:**

> Merle rolled a nat 20 on saving his boyfriend, and they lived happily ever after. The end.


End file.
